Sunday, March 25, 2012

The fourth nominee is an anthology, rather than a collection by one author. (Not that you didn't know what an anthology was, but the distinction is noteworthy under the circumstances, those being the five nominees for the Lambda Literary Award for lesbian poets.)

As you are curious about the other nominees, you will want to look at the past three postings herein on My 3,000 Loving Arms and (furthermore) keep an eye tuned to tomorrow's posting which will have the final nomination (all posted in random order).

Milk and Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry, edited by Julie R. Enszer, published by Midsummer Night's Press, includes poems by a variety (duh) of poets and if you want more information, click here (there) to get to Midsummer's page. In the meantime, I post one poem by one of the poets, Robin Becker.

I'm thinking it's not included, but it's such a great poem, I want to read her and the other poets' twist on and insights.

Angel Supporting St. Sebastian

Shot with arrows and left for dead,
against the angel's leg, Sebastian sinks.
In time, he'll become the patron
saint of athletes and bookbinders.
But for now, who wouldn't want to be
delivered into the sculpted arms
of this seraph, his heavenly
shoulders and biceps?
The artist understood the swoon
of doctrine, its fundamental
musculature, and the human need
to lean against the lusty form,
accept the discourse that assigns
to each of us a winged guardian
whispering into our ringing ears.